Song Themes

Pressure

Song Review
by Mike DeGagne

Billy Joel traded in his well-groomed piano playing for the electric punch of the synthesizer on "Pressure," which reached number 20 in the fall of 1982. Joel had his work cut out for him as he tried to equal the success of 1980's Glass Houses, which gave him his first number one single in "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" with the pensiveness of The Nylon Curtain. With the album reflecting the serious side of Joel in songs like "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon," "Pressure" seemed to be Joel's rock & roll outlet, blending a streamlined synth riff with multiple tempos and clever lyrics. His excitability comes through in the chorus with his own style of verbal dramatics and a hardened edge that may have been overlooked in full because of the strength of Nylon Curtain's other material. As one of Billy Joel's more fervent songs, "Pressure" proved that he could keep up with the early part of the decade's keyboard submergence while still sounding like himself, with style and wit intact. Although the rest of The Nylon Curtain represents a more astute-sounding piano man, "Pressure" signifies the album's most highly charged rocker.